


silhouette in the sunrise

by Oceantail



Series: Oceantail's MCYT fics [3]
Category: Among Us (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF, Youtube RPF
Genre: (but i will tag as coffee shop au), 2.6k words of cuteness, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Boba Shop AU, Cute, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Oblivious Sykkuno, actually it’s, but it's jack in this fic, everyone loves teasing sykkuno, ik his name isn't jack, jack rae and poki are the best wingmen, sunrise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27496438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oceantail/pseuds/Oceantail
Summary: Sykkunohatedthe morning shift (getting up at 6am to go to work is hell), but suddenly it’s not so bad once he meets Corpse, an anxious, tired, masked customer with a cute laugh who always buys boba at the crack of dawn.
Relationships: Corpse Husband/Sykkuno (Video Blogging RPF), Sean McLoughlin & Sykkuno
Series: Oceantail's MCYT fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2003056
Comments: 48
Kudos: 954





	silhouette in the sunrise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [polywitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/polywitch/gifts).



> again, dedicated to [Vivi (@cactilads on tumblr)](https://cactilads.tumblr.com/) for simping with me. <3
> 
> this is also an apology fic for the soulmate au angst fest fic ("[he has such a way with words](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27416170)")

Sykkuno _hated_ the morning shift. Although, Sykkuno was sure that as much as _he_ hated it, Rae and Poki probably hated it more. Since Felix was off on vacation in Italy, Charlie had called in sick yesterday, and Dave had just quit last week, Scarra needed three people to fill in on the morning shift with Jack.

Don’t get him wrong, he loves his job, what with the flexible hours and small crew of employees (who were all his friends), but he just didn’t like getting up early.

It was so early in fact, that the sun wasn’t even up yet when he parked his car and wrestled his key into the back door of the shop.

MIRA was a small tea shop sitting just on the outskirts of L.A. It was originally just a traditional tea house, but over the last few years it slowly started to include more boba drink options and even selling merch, all which Sykkuno approved of. Adapting to the modern trends and all.

Anyway, it was a cozy and homey place and he actually liked his boss. Scarra was a nice guy and a fair manager, even if he was the one who reassigned him to the morning shift so incredibly last minute.

God, he was _so_ tired this morning. Honestly, Sykkuno felt like he was ready to fall asleep standing up. Maybe staying up past 3am last night playing Minecraft was a bad idea.

Sykkuno sighed and hung up his jacket in the back room reaching over to plug in the coffeemaker sitting on a small table. He may work in a tea shop, but sometimes a nice cup of coffee really hits the spot. Thankfully, Jack had set up his own mini coffee station in the back room a few years ago. It was really coming in handy today.

He finished pouring out the coffee into three cups just when Rae and Poki were slipping in through the back door.

As anticipated, they looked just as tired as he was, so he gestured at the two extra cups on the table.

“Thanks Sykkuno,” Poki said, draining half the cup of near-boiling hot coffee in one gulp and handing the other to Rae.

Rae made a muffled noise of agreement and Sykkuno gave them a nod and stepped out to the front where Jack was already setting up the register.

It was way too early for this, he could handle the rush hour flow of customers better than this slow, tired crawling pace. He should have asked Scarra to find someone else but he didn’t want to be rude and—

“Oh, he’s a bit late today,” Jack said, interrupting Sykkuno's internal lamenting over his life.

 _Wow,_ thought Sykkuno, taking another drink of his coffee, _his accent sure is stronger in the morning._

Then he registered what his friend was actually saying and turned to look where Jack was staring. “What? Who?”

“Corpse Husband,” Jack declared, squinting at a dark hooded figure approaching the cafe doors.

“Corpse Husband?” Rae asked, coming over to them to look out at the door as well.

Poki tilted her head in thought, “I think Dave talked about someone with that name before.”

Jack nodded, “It’s how Felix, Charlie, and I met him. He’s been coming to MIRA almost every week since _forever_ , even way before Dave started working here. And since none of you really did morning shift before so you wouldn’t have met him.”

“He always comes in the morning then?” asked Sykkuno, taking another sip of his coffee.

“Right when the shop opens,” Jack confirmed.

“That’s honestly impressive,” said Poki, picking up a stack of cups and moving them to the front of the counter, “I _hate_ getting up this early. Props to him.”

“I don’t actually think he’s an early riser, though,” Jack replied, frowning slightly, “he always comes in looking like he was up all night.”

“But,” Jack added, a small smile breaking out across his face, “he's got the _best_ voice you will _ever_ hear.”

Rae and Poki gasped loudly in unison, both turning to Sykkuno, tiredness briefly gone from their faces.

“ _Sykkuno_ , you gonna take that?”

“Wait, Sykkuno, those are _fighting words_!”

“A better voice??”

“Sykkuno if he has a better voice, I’m getting Scarra to fire you.”

“What! Ummmm—”

“Corpse!” Jack interrupted as the man in question pushed open the door. “How’re you doing today, buddy?” he asked, a bright smile on his face, vastly different than a fake customer service smile.

The man _did_ look like he was up all night. His face was mostly obscured by a strange purple mask that only revealed the top left portion of his face, but a tired brown eye rimmed with smeared eyeliner squinted back at them. He looked vaguely uncomfortable as he walked up to the counter, gaze flickering across Rae, Poki and Sykkuno standing behind Jack.

"Uh,” he said after a somewhat awkward silence, “Hello.”

Immediately, Rae and Poki started talking.

"Woah!"

"Holy _shit_."

"Sykkuno, you’re fired, get out—"

“Wait _what?!”_

Rae, looking genuinely curious, stepped closer to Corpse, "Is that real?!"

Jack was smirking at their reaction, “It’s real, believe me.”

From just to the top left side of his face not obscured by the strange mask, Sykkuno could tell that Corpse looked both half bashful and half ready to pass out from the attention.

Rae shoved Sykkuno hard into the counter and he yelped in surprise, “Corpse, you and Sykkuno need to _fistfight!_ ”

“ _Voice_ fight!” Poki added gleefully.

Sykkuno stuck his tongue out at them and they cackled.

“Um,” Corpse began again, still looking mildly alarmed by the commotion, “Jack I-I thought you, Charlie, and Felix were on the morning shift.” Then his eye went wide, “N-not! Not that, I- I mean it-it’s nice to meet you all.”

Jack shook his head apologetically as punched in Corpse’s name and order into the machine, “Charlie called in sick with a cold and Felix is taking the week off to go to visit Marzia’s parents in Italy.”

“Oh,” Corpse replied, anxiously twisting the silver rings on his fingers, the reflection of the store lights glinting off them like starlight. “I-I hope Charlie gets better soon.”

Jack hummed in agreement.

“But,” he continued, gesturing behind himself, “I’d like you to meet Sykkuno, Rae, and Poki. Sorry for the loudness. They’re crazy.”

Rae didn’t bother looking embarrassed, offering Corpse a wave, “Nice to meet you. You know, I feel like your voice is touching a part of me I didn’t know existed.”

Poki nodded, “Same! It’s like it's _violating_ me.” Then after a pause, “in a _good_ way of course,” she amended, wincing a bit.

Corpse laughed awkwardly, and rubbed the back of his head. “Uh, thanks. I mean- um.”

“$4.25 Corpse.” Jack said, kindly putting him out of his misery.

Corpse looked thrilled to be saved from the conversation and withdrew a crumpled $5 bill and a rectangular punch card from his hoodie pocket and handed them to Jack.

“Here I got that,” Sykkuno said, plucking the punch card out of Jack’s hand and pulling out the hole puncher from a drawer. “Woah, two more and you get a free drink, Mr. Corpse! You must come here a lot! That's preeetty cool.”

Corpse made a strange sound and his uncovered eye blinked rapidly. “Uh. Th-thank you Sykkuno. I uhm- I do, I do like boba.”

From his side, Sykkuno heard Jack force down a muffled snort as he printed out the receipt and scribbled down the order on the cup.

Sykkuno punched the 7th hole into the card and held it back out to Corpse who took it with slightly trembling hands, gaze darting from the card, to Sykkuno’s face, then over his shoulder, before dropping down to stare at the counter.

Out of concern, Sykkuno turned around to see what Corpse was looking at, only to see Rae and Poki giggling and conversing in hushed whispers; it didn’t seem malicious at all, not that he would assume his friends would ever be mean to a stranger, so he ignored it.

Sykkuno reached for the plastic cup Jack was holding, but Jack only gave him a pointed look then handed the cup back to Poki and Rae, who were both still strangely secretive over their conversation.

“Your change is 75¢,” Jack said handing Corpse three quarters and his receipt.

The bottom of Corpse’s mask shifted slightly when he took the change, “Thanks Jack,” he said, dropping the coins into the tip jar and stuffing the receipt into his pocket.

“Of course, buddy.”

Jack glanced at Corpse and Sykkuno and turned away. “I’m going to, uh, recount inventory for today,” he said darting away to the back room, “Sykkuno make sure Corpse gets his drink.”

Sykkuno blinked. “Huh?” _That was strange._

“So…” Sykkuno started awkwardly. That was so weird of Jack to just leave him alone here, especially if Jack already knew Corpse.

“So….” Corpse echoed, staring down at his hands, still fiddling with his rings and _woah_ , how did Sykkuno not notice before?

“You paint your nails,” Sykkuno said, admiring the slightly chipped black nail polish. “It really goes with your whole aesthetic.”

The top part of Corpse’s cheek that was visible flushed a dull pink and Sykkuno winced. He didn’t mean to embarrass him!

“I mean that’s _good_!” Sykkuno rushed to correct, “I always wanted to paint my nails but I don’t really know where to get started.”

Corpse coughed, clearing his throat before rasping out “You-you would look good with them.”

Sykkuno’s heart rate leapt at the words, and he almost thought it was going to beat out of his chest. (He must have drank too much of Jack’s strong Irish coffee this morning.)

His hand jumped to his mouth automatically to cover the smile that immediately broke out across his face. “Thank you Corpse!”

“You’re-you’re welcome, Sykkuno.”

“Sorry this drink is taking a while, Corpse,” Rae interrupted them with a bright grin, “I just want to make sure I measure everything out _perfectly_.” Sykkuno turned around in time to see her carefully scope up a heaping of ice and painstakingly use a chopstick to levy off the top.

Sykkuno frowned, turning back to Corpse, “I don’t know what’s taking Rae so long to make the drink, she’s usually so fast at it.” And it was extra weird Poki wasn’t trying to help her, just standing next to Rae and giving the two of them a thumbs up.

“Uh huh,” Corpse managed, drumming his fingers on the counter almost twitching with restless energy. Sykkuno almost wanted to give him a hug, but he was pretty sure they hadn’t reached that level of friendship left.

“So,” Corpse began after a few more seconds of silence. “Um is Sykkuno your real name?” Corpse asked, gesturing at his nametag with a scrawled _“Sykkuno :D”_ in green sharpie.

“Oh! No, it’s not. It’s just a nickname. I mean, Corpse isn’t _your_ real name is it?”

Corpse let out a soft chuckle, “No it’s not.”

Sykkuno nodded and didn't press, he could understand the strange relationship you could have with your own name.

They fell into silence again, but Sykkuno kinda... enjoyed it. It was a peaceful silence, a kind of tranquility that only the early morning atmosphere could offer.

“Sunrise is coming in, Sykkuno.” Corpse said softly, using his head to gesture out the window and at the pink, orange and purple sky.

“It looks beautiful,” Sykkuno admitted. He usually never saw sunrises.

Peaceful silence again, and the only noises that filled the air was Rae sealing the plastic cap over the cup and shaking the drink.

A few moments later, Rae beckoned Sykkuno over to take the drink, giving him a discrete wink and a smirk as he walked over to her.

_Huh? What was that?_

Shaking it off, Sykkuno turned back to hand Corpse the drink before pausing. Picking up a sharpie he quickly scribbled down a little doodle on the side of the cup, smiling to himself.

“You drew a gravestone,” Corpse said when Sykkuno handed him the drink, examining the sharpie drawing on the cup.

Sykkuno laughed a bit nervously, “It’s just, um...y’know, for corpse. I just thought it would be funny.”

Corpse chuckled softly, staring down at his cup. “I like it. Thank you Sykkuno,” he rumbled, now looking unmistakably flustered.

 _He has a really cute laugh_ , a voice in his head whispered, and Sykkuno almost flinched backward into the wall behind him at the realization.

Oh.

_Oh._

Shoot.

“Goodbye Sykkuno,” Corpse said, the bottom of his mask shifted upwards as he smiled at him.

A couple seconds passed and the only thing Sykkuno could think was... _Cute._ Automatically Sykkuno lifted his hand to wave goodbye to Corpse and with the other, he covered his mouth to hide his growing smile.

They stared at him for a few seconds before Corpse froze. “Ah, goodbye Jack,” he added awkwardly, “and it’s nice to meet you Rae and Poki,” he said, nodding at the rest of them standing in the back behind Sykkuno.

“See you later buddy!”

“Bye Corpse!” Rae and Poki said in unison.

Jack, Rae and Poki waved him goodbye as Corpse slipped out of the shop into the early morning, the first rays of light just barely creeping over the horizon.

Corpse’s words echoed through his head as the door swung shut, the bells dangling on the door frame tinkling at the movement.

_Sunrise is coming in, Sykkuno._

_Huh,_ Sykkuno thought, turning his gaze from Corpse’s retreating figure to admire the golden sunbeams shining through the window and illuminating the wall in the shop. _The sunrise_ is _actually really pretty._ On normal days he sleeps in as long as he possibly can. He hasn’t seen the sunrise in years.

So maybe it _was_ the sunrise. Maybe it was the faint spark of possibility, of _hope,_ that tugged at his gut. Maybe it was the fluttering of his stomach and the way his heart raced when Corpse laughed at his joke, he wasn’t oblivious enough anymore to really think it was the coffee. Maybe it was the fact he only got 3 hours of sleep last night before because of this crack-of-dawn work shift.

Maybe he was crazy for _wanting_ more crack-of-dawn shifts.

As Corpse’s silhouette in the sunrise finally disappeared from view, Sykkuno pulled out his phone from his pocket to send a text to Scarra, pushing past his giggling friends and ducking into the back room.

* * *

“So Sykkuni,” Jack grinned as he poked at Sykkuno’s shoulder as they headed out to their cars after their shift ended. “Heard you asked for more morning shifts next week.”

Sykkuno groaned, a hand coming up to cover his face as he flushed bright red. He really wasn’t ready for the teasing yet. Rae and Poki had thankfully let him off the hook for today, but no doubt they had already spread the news to their other friends.

Jack’s shit-eating grin grew wider and ignored his question. “Now why would you do such a thing? If you just wanted to spend more time with _me_ , we can just hang out more outside of work.”

Clearly enjoying Sykkuno’s splutters, Jack continued, “Did it or did it not have to do with what happened this morning?”

Sykkuno pressed both hands against his flaming face and laughed nervously, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

That was as good of an admission as Jack was going to get and Jack already knew why Sykkuno asked for the morning shift, so he relented, clapping his friend on the shoulder, “Don’t worry Sykkuno, I still love you.”

Sykkuno let out a low goran.

Jack squeezed him into a side hug. “I’m happy for you. Corpse is a great person and I’m sure he’d be excited to see you be here tomorrow morning.”

“Thanks Jack,” Sykkuno mumbled into his hands.

He loved his friends but ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh—

**Author's Note:**

> i am BLOWN AWAY by how nice people in this fanbase are and the reception to both my corpse & sykkuno fics.  
> people who leave comments and interact with the fanwork are truly the kindest people you will ever meet.  
> that said, comments raise my serotonin <3<3
> 
> also, subscribe to this series for more. i'm like 87% sure there's going to be more fics coming. :)


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